


The Lines That Touch

by slash4femme



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Charlie needs to find a new coffeeshop, F/M, M/M, in which Amita gets a career that does not revolve around Charlie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-27
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-17 05:44:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1376023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slash4femme/pseuds/slash4femme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>of coffee, rain and deciding what makes you happy</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lines That Touch

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in September 2009 
> 
> written for the prompt 'the nineteenth time' for the group [](http://community.livejournal.com/24_times/profile)[ **24_times**](http://community.livejournal.com/24_times/) . All of the stories written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/24_times/profile)[ **24_times**](http://community.livejournal.com/24_times/)  will have titles taken from the song _Love's Lines, Angles and Rhyme_ s beta read by [](http://nullus-anxietas.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://nullus-anxietas.livejournal.com/) **nullus_anxietas**  

I.

This is how it starts. When Amita moves to Washington D.C., Charlie stops going to his usual coffee shop. It reminded him a little too much of the way things used to be and usually for Charlie that’s what he likes in his life, but evidently no longer when it comes to his choice of coffee. The new coffee shop is nice, good coffee, wonderful baked goods and the employees are friendly when he orders and then leave him alone. He has to walk a little further from campus but he figures a little extra exercise won’t hurt him.

He’s works on mapping exchange velocities for Don’s newest case, for what feels like minutes but when he takes off his headphones and looks at the clock on his laptop. It’s been hours. It isn’t quite late enough to go home yet, but he’s lost his train of thought. He pulls his jacket on, picks up his messenger bag and puts his headphones back on. By the time he’s halfway to the coffee shop, it starts to rain. Charlie blinks up at the sky for a few minutes then sighs and takes his headphones off and stuffs them in his bag. He hunches over pulling his coat closer around him but it doesn’t really keep the rain off, his t-shirt is starting to stick to his back and his hair is slowly uncurling and slicking against his face. Charlie hunches his shoulders a little bit more watching the grounds as he walks, concentrating on mapping the angles and ratios of the cracks in the sidewalk. When he comes to the coffee shop he stops and blinks up at it, then goes in.

“Hey, Charlie.”

He looks up from where he’s shaking off his coat. “Hello Amy.”Amy smiles at him, the light glinting off the rings in her nose, eyebrow and ears, then goes back to washing out the smoothie blender.

“Can I have a large coffee and . . .” Charlie ducks down for a minute to look at the pastries in the case, “a chocolate cupcake. That one there, yes. Thank you.”

Amy grins at him but doesn’t say anything as she gets the coffee and puts the cupcake on a plate and Charlie pays and brings both plate and cup to a table by a window but far enough from the door so as not to distract him. He puts on his headphones again and pulls out a notepad. He takes a sip of coffee and sighs, looking out at the rain. He drums his fingers lightly on the notepad and thinks about Amita; about the last e-mail he had from her. She seemed happy and excited about the computer work she was doing, about working with the people at Quantico, about living so close to Washington, just really excited and happy. He’s glad she disserves that. He opens his notepad and starts writing. Don’s case is interesting but not really intellectually challenging work. He switches over to one of his own projects and puts some papers from his students that he needs to grade on the table for good measure. He misses Amita. It’s more then just that they had been lovers and he’d thought it would last forever. He also misses talking to her, doing work with her. He’s not like he has that many friends. That and it didn’t last forever after all.

“Charles.”

Charlie blinks up and realizes he’s lost track of time again, that and his coffee is cold. Larry is standing on the other side of his table looking down at him and Charlie blinks a couple times. “Larry.”

Larry smiles at him and sits down, “No longer frequenting your old coffee shop I see.”

Charlie blinks at him again for a few minutes longer trying to makes his brain think about something besides math. “No . . . no, I don’t go there anymore.” He looks down at his notepad again.

“You’re lonely.”

Charlie looks up at Larry again. “No, I’m not.”

“Charles, please, your . . .It’s been a long time since you’ve spent this much time on your own. I’ve noticed. Alan’s noticed.”

Charlie’s sighs and sets down his pen. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’m busy.”

“Well,” Larry sips his coffee. “Think about what might make you happy.”

“Work, Larry.” Charlie looks pointedly down at his notepad again. “Work makes me happy.”

Larry only shakes his head then uses two fingers to gently turn the notepad around on the table looking over Charlie’s work. “Perhaps you should try rethinking your assumptions about the variables for line two.”

“What?” Charlie cranes his neck around to look at the equation. “What do you mean; does it look wrong to you? Do you think it’s wrong?”

“No, no Charles I wouldn’t say wrong, exactly, maybe less then it could be . . .” Larry takes the pen off the table and Charlie moves his chair around the table, closer to Larry.

“I see, yes I see what you're doing.” Charlie reaches out in his excitement and tries to grab the pen away from Larry. Their hands tangle for a moment and Charlie manages to take the pen and starts crossing things out and writing new equations. For several moments Larry watches what Charlie’s writing and then his gaze moves watching Charlie frown at the page, which Charlie is only vaguely conscious of and doesn’t really understand.

“Larry what time is it?” Larry blinks several times and Charlie reaches across their bodies and grabs Larry’s wrist dragging it around to look at Larry’s watch. “OK, so too late to go back to CalSci, would you like to have dinner with me Larry?”

“I . . . I supposes, Charles, will your father be expecting company?”

Charlie shrugs. “He’ll have made enough, he always makes too much anyway.”

Charlie packs his bag and they bring their dishes to the counter. It’s still raining Charlie realizes when they step outside and he hunches forward in his jacket again and then smiles when Larry blinks at the sky like he’s just realized it’s raining, either that or he’s never seen rain before. Which is impossible, seeing as Larry had worked in New Jersey for so long. Charlie grins at Larry and Larry smiles gently back. Then Larry turns up the collar of his coat and they head towards Larry’s car together.

 

II.

They used to be so close. For so long Charlie can’t remember anyone in his life more important to him then Larry, anyone who’s understood him better than Larry. Over the years things had changed, things had drawn them out of each other’s close orbit, Don, Amita, Megan, Larry going to space.

Charlie perches on the edge of Larry’s desk, watching Larry work on the chalkboards at the back of the room. Larry’s work is so complex and elegant. Even when the concepts don’t really interest Charlie he has always been able to admire it. Larry’s work is beautiful, it always has been.

“You know, we haven’t really collaborated on a project in awhile.” Larry turns around to look at Charlie in surprise and Charlie swings his legs and looks at the floor a little shyly. “I was just thinking, it might be nice, you know, to really work together again.”

“Yes.” Larry rolls the chalk thoughtfully between his fingers. “Yes I think that would be very interesting. That is if you have the time.”

Charlie thinks about his life, thinks about what he still has and what’s no longer there. “Don’t worry. I have the time.”

 

III.

“Charles I can’t help but think . . .”

Charlie looks up from where he’s on his hands and knees on the floor on top of a giant map of L.A. Larry is sitting on the table in Charlie’s garage, watching Charlie while trying to stay off of the map. Larry is also giving him a very strange look, a very distracted look, almost bashful, a lot thoughtful. Charlie clears his throat and Larry starts a little.

“You were saying, Larry?”

“Oh, I was just wondering whether you’ve taken into account the more human variable of these men’s possible motivations.”

“Yes, yes, yes, Larry. I’ve taken into account all of the possible motivations I and the FBI can think of. I have been doing this for a while you know.” Charlie looks back down at the map, upset and peevish because they’ve been at this for hours and getting nowhere, he’s knees hurt and he’s cold and hungry and the world doesn’t makes sense. The case doesn’t makes senses, the numbers he keeps getting don’t makes sense, the fact that he feels so alone all the time doesn’t make sense. Larry sitting there, looking at him like that, looking like that, making him feel and Charlie’s tired and upset and he doesn’t want this. He sits up and rubs his hands against his thighs trying to get some feeling back into the palms of his hands. He glances up at Larry again who’s watching him, with that same intense, strange, look.

“Maybe we should collaborate on a project.” Larry says quietly out of nowhere and Charlie blinks and tracks back to their earlier conversation several days ago. “That would be very instructive for both of us, I think.” Charlie can only nod and Larry pushes himself off the table in one fluid movement Charlie doesn’t think he himself is even capable of. “I think I’m going to see if dinner's ready.” Larry is heading or the stares and Charlie watches Larry retreating back. It means nothing he tells himself fiercely when Larry’s gone into the house, nothing, nothing at all.

 

IV.

They are sitting together on Larry’s desk looking at two chalkboards worth of equation, trying to figure out that, if the equations are in fact all correct, why aren’t they able to move forward with their initial line of reasoning. Larry is slowly eating his way through a package of cookies in an effort to help himself think. Charlie is studiously avoiding eating any of the cookies in an effort to help himself not gain any more weight.

“Have you heard from Megan lately?”

Larry stops, cookie half way to his mouth, then slowly sets it aside. “No. No Charles I have not, not for some time.”

Larry looks down at the floor and Charlie is suddenly unbelievably sorry he asked. He reaches over, squeezing Larry’s shoulder hard, hating the slightly sad and pained look on Larry’s face, wishing he could do more, wishing he could reach out and takes Larry’s face between his hands and . . . He lets go of Larry’s shoulder, dropping his hand to the desk, looking down at it and Larry sighs, crossing one arm over his chest, cupping his own chin with the other. “I think the problem is with this expression, there, on the eighth line, farthest to the left.”Larry slides off the table and walks towards the chalkboards. Charlie shivers, missing the warmth of Larry’s body close to his and after a minute also slides off Larry’s desk to come and stand next to Larry, trying to see what Larry sees and how they might be able to fix it.

 

V.

The nineteenth time Charlie goes to his new coffee shop it’s raining again. Not a little rain, but a torrential downpour that soaks him to the bone, right through his coat, the minute he steps out into it. He swears under his breath and hunches forward, wondering why it’s raining so much this fall. It doesn’t usually and he thinks it’s probably a sign of global warming. When he gets there he orders a large cup of coffee and takes it to his usual table then strips off his coat and topmost shirt, which is just about as many layers as he feels comfortable with taking off in public. He takes a sip of coffee then draws his feet up on to the edge of the chair, putting one arm around his knees, looking out at the rain. It’s been exactly a year since Amita moved to Washington and she’s happy now. Her life and her career moving forward, while he just keeps going around in circles. He is thirty-three years old he doesn’t want to do this anymore. He rests his head against his knees and closes his eyes, wishing he’d thought to bring work with him. He’s thinking about writing a book, based on some of the work he’s done for the FBI, a more scholarly book, maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn’t.

“Charles.”

Charlie opens his eyes and looks up although he knows who it is of course. Larry’s standing next to the table, looking surprisingly dry, umbrella tucked under his arm, hands in the pockets of his coat. Larry’s frowning at him, looking tired, looking older, something Charlie usually finds disturbing, but today he finds it comforting. “Did you walk here in the rain?” Larry asks sitting down across from him. The question is unnecessary, Charlie thinks, because from how wet Charlie still is it’s pretty obvious that he did.

“I didn’t realize it was raining before I left.” Charlie lays his hand palm down against the painted tiles of the tabletop next to his cup of coffee.

Larry frowns at him. “Charles . . .”

“Don’t.” Charlie holds up his other hand and closes his eyes again. “You sound like my father; I’ll remember an umbrella next time.”

Larry sighs, “Alright then, if I’m risking the possibility of being mistaken for Alan, I won’t point out the obvious detriment to your health walking several blocks in this weather presents, but I would ask you to please tell me what on earth has been eating at you for the past few months.”

Charlie closes his eyes again briefly and shakes his head. “I feel old.”

Larry laughs, his hand moving across to table to cover Charlie's own. “Oh Charles . . . I don’t know whether to be appalled for your sake or for mine.”

Charlie looks down at where Larry’s hand covers his own on the table, but doesn’t draw his hand away. “I didn’t mean- you know I didn’t mean it like that.” Larry finally seems to realize that they are essentially holding hands and draws is hand away a little too quickly. Charlie misses it, misses it a lot. He sighs and rubs one hand across his eyes. “Did you bring your car? I think I want to go home.”Larry nods and stands. Charlie picks up his sodden coat and shirt and brings his cup to the counter. They step outside together again, into the rain and Larry shakes open his umbrella and holds it a little higher then he needs to, to accommodate Charlie. They head for Larry’s car and it occurs to Charlie that he never had actually told Larry about switching coffee shops and that Larry had always used the same one he had.

“You came here, looking for me.” Larry looks up at him surprised and Charlie clarifies. “You followed me here, the first time.”

Larry doesn’t answer only looks down at his sneakers against the wet pavement. For a long moment they just stand there in silence, huddled together under Larry’s umbrella. “I was, and in fact still am worried about you.” Larry tells him finally very quietly, almost shyly. “I have known you for a very long time Charles and I can only remember one other time you have been quite this unhappy for quite this long.”Larry stops speaking, bites his bottom lip, still staring at the ground and Charlie takes a minute to take it all in and then reaches forward to grip Larry’s arm.

“So make me happy.” Charlie says equally softly, but there’s a kind of urgency to it and Larry finally looks up and meets his eyes. Larry looks uncertain for a minute as if afraid that they might have their signals crossed and therefore not be talking about the same thing. Finally though, Larry carefully moves the umbrella from his right hand to his left, reaches up to put his right hand firmly on the back of Charlie’s neck, pulling him forward and down a little and kisses him. Charlie closes his eyes and leans into the kiss, letting his hands come to rest just under the edge of Larry’s jacket, against his waist and finally Larry pulls back. Charlie smiles softly at him and reaches one hand up to touch Larry’s cheek and Larry looks slightly overwhelmed and Charlie feels slightly overwhelmed. He squeezes Larry’s waist hard and then finally lets go and Larry takes a step back, nearly taking Charlie’s eye out with the umbrella. Charlie takes a hasty step back too, into the rain and Larry turns to unlock his car and Charlie takes several quick steps forward towards Larry.

“I think I’ve changed my mind.” He says putting his hand on Larry’s shoulder and Larry turns quickly, fear written clear on his face and Charlie squeezes Larry's shoulder firmly. “I don’t want to go home. I’d rather go to your apartment. If you want me to, that is.” He looks up at Larry, hopeful and a little awkward because he’s never been good at this part and has never done it before with Larry. Slowly Larry smiles, brilliantly beautiful and Charlie smiles back and it’s not awkward at all really.

 

IV.

Charlie wakes to find himself lying on top of Larry in a position which can’t be comfortable for the smaller man, but Larry seems to be sleeping peacefully anyway. Charlie detangles himself from the sheets and rolls over to lying next to Larry. He’s still wearing one of his t-shirts and he’s not quite sure how that happened. He spoons against Larry, curling one arm around the other man’s body. Larry must have put back on his boxers because he’s wearing them now and Charlie a little disappointed by that because he’s discovered during the last couple hours that he likes having Larry naked against him. He gently places his hand flat against Larry’s stomach feels him breathe and is glad for it. Charlie’s been attracted to other men before, he’s just never wanted them the way he wants Larry, or felt the way he feels about Larry. Charlie presses his face into Larry’ hair, kissing his neck right below where it begins to curl. The thought of Larry being with other men makes Charlie surprisingly possessive and angry, like having his theories questioned in public. His arm around Larry’s body tightens and he pulls Larry closer to him. Still asleep, snoring softly Larry moves willingly against him and slowly the tension eases away from Charlie. He closes his eyes and sighs quietly.

It’s easy to think of a ‘them’ when he thinks about himself and Larry. It’s easy to see them spending every day together, because they already do, always have. It’s easy seeing them doing this again, preferably sooner rather then later. Not that this new ‘them’ is going to be forever, because he knows better than that now. Still Charlie’s arm tightens even more around Larry; he’s had most of Larry’s life and attention for twenty years so far. They can do this, he thinks, they really can. If Alan doesn’t kill him, or maybe Larry, when he finds out, but after Alan gets over the shock he might actually be pleased. Charlie yawns, Alan’s always seemed pleased before when Charlie’s had a relationship or had any real reason to come out of the garage. It will make collaborating on projects easier, he thinks and he still really wants to do that. Larry murmurs something in his sleep and moves closer to Charlie and Charlie feels himself drifting off a little. Tomorrow he’s going to ask Larry what he wants, ask him if this is alright, because they’ve been close for such a long time but never in the same orbit, so to speak and there are a lot of things about Larry Charlie’s just now learning and learning to appreciate. They are two lines, him and Larry, he thinks. He’s always just assumed they were parallel, but they’ve intersected now and he wonders what they’re creating and decides to think about that tomorrow.

 


End file.
